Aim: To practise dialogues between a customer and shopkeeper, food vocabulary, numbers, and the form "I want" or "I would like"

Warm Up: With children who can read, I cut up the dialogue in the pdf below, and get the children to put it in the correct order. We read it through a few times to check pronunciation, and then we are ready to play.

Other warm ups:- Take turns to name a food, if somebody can't think of anything/repeats what has already been said they are out. - I went to the shop and I bought.... each person repeats the phrase, adding on one item each time. - Give each child a type of shop or a colour. Each child must then think/write down/draw of all the products which would be sold in their shop/food of their colour. If it's an individual they can race against their teacher. It's also good to have a one minute timer.

The game: We love this game as it's really fun, and gives lots of speaking practice. For two players we usually take two shops each, for three we cover one shop, and for four you each get a shop. Each player chooses what they are going to be buying, rolls the die and moves around the board until they reach their shop. Then they have a conversation with the owner of that shop to buy the product. Then they choose their next product and play continues until... the lesson is over, somebody's shop is sold out, or somebody has no money left.

Where to buy:I buy all of my games in England at carboot sales for no more than £1 each. Of course that probably won't be possible outside of the UK, but this game comes from Orchard Toys who deliver worldwide. Or you can find it on Amazon. ​​​

Aim: To learn new vocabulary, to understand the storyline, to create the characters and to act out the story.

Vocabulary: I print the flashcards PDF onto card, cut them out and laminate them so they last longer, and they're easier to turn over. You/your students can also colour them before laminating - if you have time!

​Then I lay them out on the table face down and turn over two cards, saying each one out loud as I turn it. If they're a pair I keep them, if they aren't I turn them back facedown and it's the student's turn. Even if the students can't read they will understand if they have a pair by listening to you saying the word when they turn the cards over and should start repeating what you say. If you want to continue playing with the cards you could try:

Memory - turn all of the picture cards face up, student closes their eyes and you take one card away. They try to remember what it was. Then you swap.

Hide & Seek - Hide the picture cards around the room, the student then brings you the card you request and matches it to the word.

Listening: next we watch the story or read the book depending on the student. I like this version from the British Council [link here] as it's really simple for ESL learners and they also have some great worksheets to accompany the story. The students should recognise the key vocabulary throughout the story. ​

Speaking: Next we create the characters from the story so that we can act it out. You can also just act it out with various props from around the house - we once had great fun swapping roles, holding out leaves to be the beanstalk etc and using soft toys as the hen, the cow, Mum and Jack. If you're students like crafting then I recommend these amazing printables from LearnCreateLove.com. I print them onto card, colour them and stick them onto wooden sticks. Have fun! ​

Aim: To learn and use under the sea vocabulary, to understand The Little Mermaid, to think about emotions, and to play miming game.

Warm up: Revise the ocean vocabulary by playing one of the flash card games from the last lesson. Then watch the video for the song "under the sea" and try to remember the names to all of the sea creatures you see.

Listening: Print and cut out the sequencing sheet. Get your student to put it in the order they think it will happen. Then watch the video to check. Next get your student to retell the story - as best they can, whether it's lots of pointing, miming or full sentences!

Next we used some of the pages from the study guide (link here) from filmeducation.org. This is made for British children but depending on the level some parts can be useful for ESL students.

With my youngest, we talked about the emotions and drew the mouths onto the faces on page 10. We then pretended we had no voice (like the little mermaid) and had to act out what was on the card to each other.

​I use this game "Guess What!" from Flying Tiger but it can work with any flashcards you have.

With older students, there is lots to do in terms of creating characters and story writing and also practising conditionals with the food chain activities on page 6. ​

If your students like crafting then next I recommend making the mermaid craft from LearnCreateLove.com and then acting out the story together.

Vocabulary: I have this beautiful wooden fishing game from Flying Tiger (they have stores all over Europe, but not yet in Moscow) which we played to introduce the vocabulary: shark, turtle, seahorse, starfish, fish, octopus, treasure, boot, shell and crab. There are some other kinds of fishing games on Amazon (links below) or I'm sure you can find some similar games in toy stores in your country. Another option, if you're feeling creative, is to make your own game with paper clips, string and magnets.

​Next we did some more work on our vocabulary with these printable flash cards from LearnCreateLove.com. There are so many games you can play with cards.Pairs: lay all cards face down on the table, then take turns to choose two at a time to try and find the pair.Memory: lay all cards on the table, student closes their eyes and you take a card away, they open their eyes and try to remember what it was.Hide & Seek: student closes their eyes and you hide the cards around the room, then you say "where is the octopus?" etc and the student has to find and bring you the octopus. Act It Out: take a card and act it out for your partner until they guess what it is.Who Am I?: take a card, and your partner asks you questions about it - is it big? how many legs has it got? is it an octopus?

​Finally we did some crafting with some of these ocean printables to colour, cut and stick. I did the octopus and my student did the sea turtle whilst speaking about what we were doing, helping each other to cut, to stick and to pass the green pencil etc. Then I stuck three pieces of paper together and we put our crafts together to make an ocean scene. We drew seaweed, extra fish, bubbles and some more animals. She likes a love story so of course some animals fell in love, some were babies and mums, and they all had to have eyelashes drawn on. She loved it so much she put it on display in her bedroom. ​

If you have time you could watch the video to The Little Mermaid's Under the Sea and try to spot all of the sea creatures you have just learnt about. This will lead you in nicely to the next lesson...

Aim: To read an authentic text about the movie, to learn new vocabulary and to be interested in watching the film.

Warm Up: Give students one minute (in teams or pairs) to write down all the differences they can think of between elves and humans. Go through the answers and elicit any missing information - where elves live etc.

Reading:
Read the Plot Summary for the film (source) and answer the questions:

Lovely Actually is my all time favourite Christmas film, and I wait for the evening it's on TV each year. In general my students view movie lessons as time off, so I don't tend to watch movies as a lesson. Instead, I have taken the first scene of the film and made some activities based on that. I found in the past, that students were really interested in the film, and went home and watched it themselves.

My little students at the school had been asking to celebrate Halloween since I'd first met them, and I love Halloween, so of course, I said, "Maybe. If you're good".Halloween is still catching on in Russia, so the children have often never celebrated it before, yet they all know what it is. They were so excited (and a little scared) when they arrived at my dark, dark classroom in the dark, dark school...
​Topic: Halloween, spooky stuff!

Level: Any

Aim: To learn Halloween vocabulary, to revise parts of the body, to practise some grammar in a fun way and to experience how kids celebrate Halloween in other countries.

Previous Lesson:During the lessons leading up to the big 3-1, we did some tasks relating to Halloween for ESL, some from the book "This Is Britain" using a video which can be found on YouTube.

Aim: to practise listening to authentic materials, to read an authentic leaflet, to describe animals (it’s got…, it lives in…, it can…) and to use the language learnt to write student's own leaflet.

Warm Up: put students into two teams or pairs and ask them to write down as many zoo animals as they can think of in one minute. Go through the answers writing them on the board in columns for each team (each animal can only be said once). Then get students to think about what the animals eat, where they are from, which is the strongest etc.

Listening: students watch the TED talk about a talking animal and answer the questions.

Aim: To practise reading authentic texts, to listen to an authentic trailer and to learn new vocabulary through context.

Warm up:Split the class into two teams and give one sheet of paper per team. Give teams one minute to write down:Team one: all the GOOD things they can think of about moving to another country.Team two: all the BAD things they can think of about moving to another country. ​

﻿Another very inspiring read, and a little more down-to-earth than some. Barbara Winter suggests that anyone can take their entrepreneurial spirit and go freelance. She doesn't talk too much about growing into international corporations, but a more sensible option of doing things which you loving and developing various methods of making money. You can continue to employ just you. Or you could grow your business. ﻿

3. Jingle All The Way

In this fillm, Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves his Christmas shopping until the last minute - realising that he can't buy the toy his son wants ANYWHERE! He then ends up giving his son the most amazing Christmas present ever!
This film is cheesy but I love it.

So you're preparing for TOEFL?

When starting to prepare my new student for TOEFL, I realised that there are so many books to choose from, and that choosing the right one is essential for understanding the format of the exam; it's not just about speaking the language. I think most native speakers would struggle to get 100% as it's highly focussed on academic material; listenings about bone fractures and the solar system are two examples. The essays and speaking tasks are also very structure specific so following a frame will really improve your scores.

I was very tired last week as I got on to the very busy Metro. The crowds of people started to make me very angry as I was very hungry. I hadn't eaten all day. I felt very bad as I elbowed a man as he pushed past me but he was very dirty and the very bad smell added to my problems.

Now change this paragraph using extreme adjectives and see how it sounds.

What were your favourite childhood toys?
Which of these toys do you remember today?

I don't remember enjoying toys so much. I had a teddy bear who I carried around everywhere with me.
He now has little fur and is a less plump than he was 25 years ago, but he was very well loved.

Barbies and other dolls didn't really appeal to me. I remember thinking that make believe play was stupid. Although the TV adverts for Barbie on her 4x4 looked amazing, when it came to it, it was just a truck and a Barbie. Maybe I wasn't so creative as a child!